FOLA SPRING 2007 Mid-semester reminders:
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
COLLEGE PARK

• All students will be required to show their photo ID to the examiner at the time of the Final Exam.


• MOST FOLA Final Exams will take place on Saturday, May 12, 2007. Languages that have more than 15-30 students will be examined on 2 separate days.( Urdu and Hindi are in this category.) Information on dates/times will be distributed by your tutor in an Exam Letter and by e-mail.


• The Final Exam will cover sentence structures, vocabulary, expressions, grammar points, etc., pertaining to the TEXTBOOK and the Audio TAPES/CDs. You are responsible for the material covered in the designated chapters in your TEXTBOOK and on the Audio TAPES/CDs.


• Around mid-April, 2007 you will receive Exam Letters mostly by e-mail. Please respond promptly to these letters. Students who do not respond risk being "bumped" from the Final Exam Schedule to accommodate those students who have responded. The Exam Schedule will be POSTED (early December) on the Wall next to the FOLA office (JMZ 1109): please check for Date/Time/Room number.


• DO NOT address questions about the Final Exam to the Tutor. S/He is unauthorized to respond to such questions. ANY questions regarding the Final Exam must be directed to Dr. Naime Yaramanoglu in JMZ 1109, or call: 301-405-4046/e-mail: nya@umd.edu. All the Tutor knows is what you know: the Final Exam is from the Textbook/Audio Tapes/CDs.


• The Tutor is in class to practice the language with you, not to teach it! Please avoid the impulse to ask your Tutor for grammatical explanations and linguistic insights. Explanations, which would have to be in English, take time away from the learning process.


• FOLA Language Courses are Self-Instructional: the burden of learning is on YOU. It is essential to listen the audio tapes SYSTEMATICALLY (8 hours per week) and to practice the dialogues and exercises that you hear on the tapes. During the Final Exam you will be required to respond to questions with complete and grammatically correct/accurate sentences: it is therefore to your advantage to learn complete sentences instead of memorizing lists of vocabulary.


• Do NOT procrastinate! Experience has shown that "catching up", "cramming" on tape (listening, repeating) practice and studying does not work. Never give up on a tape/cd that you do not understand. Try listening to it several times without the text in front of you. If it is still unclear, refer to the text for an explanation.


• In order for the language you are studying to become automatic or instinctive, you must repeat all taped material numerous times, until you reach the point at which the dialogue, exercise, or drill is over learned.


• Your final grade depends solely on your performance during the Final Exam, except that the final grade will be lowered for poor or tardy attendance in class. The Tutor does NOT assign grades : his/her job, in this respect, is to report the student's attendance and preparedness to the coordinator.


• Class attendance and coming prepared to class are part of the requirements for FOLA Language Courses. If you are unprepared or absent more than twice, you have not fulfilled the requirements of the course in question: your final grade will be lowered.


• Students who are studying Armenian, Hindi, Urdu are responsible for being able to read the script in these languages. During the final exam you will be required to read from the examiner's textbook. Students who are unable to read will not get an A. If you are unable to speak with complete and accurate sentences, you will not receive a passing grade.


• The Final Exam Video tape: (Text, Tape and Tutor) +What did the Student Learn? is available at Hornbake Non-Print Media Center under FOLA VIDEO TAPE: Text, Tape and Tutor and What did the Student Learn? The Instructor name: MacBain or Yaramanoglu. The same Video tape is available at the Language Media Services in JMZ 1204 under Text, Tape and Tutor (followed by What Did The Student Learn)listed in the Video Catalog under English. Please remember to bring your ID. Some of this info is online: http://www.nasilp.org/ click on the photograph on this page.


• University Policy: Final Grades will NOT be posted. Please check TESTUDO for final grades after your Final Exam. UMBC students must wait for this information to reach them through the registrar's office at UMBC.